Martial Novalic, a devoted astronomer, discovers one day, that a monstrous comet is heading for -- and will destroy -- the Earth. Thus, the end of the world is near. His brother, Jean Novalic, a prophet, who's always dreamt of saving humanity, naively decides to warn people. In the ensuing panic he somehow wasn't able to anticipate, Jean tries to convince world leaders to proclaim a Universal Republic.

The film was viewed as pacifistic to the point of being subversively leftist. It did horrible in France when it premiered and fared little better in other places around the world. The film, however, portrays a very realistic display of cynicism and opportunism, even in the face of all-encompassing destruction; especially in its accurate depiction of how stock markets and their players perform in such circumstances. That the film also correctly predicted the upcoming world war everyone was relentlessly hurling towards in 1931 and warning that salvation lay only in the resurrection of the spirit of the now-failing League of Nations, was completely ignored at the time and almost universally condemned.

DVD-R is in French with switchable English subtitles. Approx. 89 mins. + a 5 min. contemporary newsreel. See film sample for quality!

PLEASE NOTE THAT SWITCHABLE (SOFT) SUBTITLES WILL NOT SHOW UP WHEN VIEWING THE SAMPLE BELOW. IF YOU SEE SUBTITLES, THEN THEY ARE HARD-ENCODED (meaning, they cannot be turned off when viewing the film):